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We popped down to Regent Street's Apple Store last night to see how the early queuers were doing before the iPhone 5S goes on sale this Friday 20 September.

Michael Roberts, an estate agent from Molesey in Surrey, was third in the queue that had started four days before the phone goes on sale. He sat behind a row of newspapers and magazines that give the makeshift stand-cum-rain-shield a newsagent look. "People come by and ask if we've seen news coverage of us in the paper and then hand it to us," he said.

When asked what he was queuing for Michael said he was going to buy two 32GB iPhone 5S handset, one to keep and one to sell. But when asked about selling his space in the queue he said: "I've already had an offer - £7,000. He's some rich guy from Dubai, we exchanged numbers and he said he'll be back tomorrow morning. In which case I'm selling for sure. But I haven't got my hopes up."

Despite being just a three-deep queue they have comrades across the world in Sydney and New York who have all been in communication via Twitter since they began. And at this stage even Apple is being friendly, allowing them use of the toilets and even charging their phones and sharing Wi-Fi during the night. Ideal for Michael who was updating to iOS 7 on his iPhone 5 as we spoke to him.

"Sleep has been a challenge. I got about two hours last night and an hour and a half earlier so I feel less terrible," he said about the noisy Regent Street location.

Noah Green, a 17-year-old student, plans to sell his spot but is also queueing to complete his collection of Apple gadgets saying: "I collect Apple products. I pretty much have everything that Apple makes."